120 LAKE HABITATIONS MENTIONED BY HERODOTUS. 



the early inhabitants of Switzerland constructed some, at 

 least, of their dwellings above the surface of the water, and 

 that they must have lived in a manner very similar to that 

 of the Pseonians, as described by Herodotus.* 



"Their dwellings/' he says, "are contrived after this man- 

 ner : planks fitted on lofty piles are placed in the middle of 

 the lake, with a narrow entrance from the main land by a 

 single bridge. These piles, that support the planks, all the 

 citizens anciently placed there at the public charge ; but 

 afterwards they established a law to the following effect : 

 whenever a man marries, for each wife he sinks three -piles, 

 bringing wood from a mountain called Orbelus : * but every 

 man has several wives. They live in the following manner : 

 every man- has a hut on the planks, in which he dwells, with 

 a trap-door closely fitted in the planks, and' leading down to 

 the lake. They tie the young children with a cord round 

 the foot, fearing lest they should fall into the lake beneath. 

 To their iiorses and beasts of burden they give fish for fodder ; 

 of which there is such an abundance, that when a man has 

 opened his trap-door, he lets down an empty basket by a 

 cord into the lake, and, after waiting a short time, draws 

 it up .Ml of fish:" 



In Ireland a number of more or less artificial islands called 

 "Crannoges"f (fig. 119) are known historically to have been 

 used us strongholds by the petty chiefs. They are composed 

 of earth and stones, strengthened by piles, and have sup- 

 plied the Irish archaeologists with numerous weapons, imple- 

 ments, and bones. From the Crannogeat Dunshauglin, indeed, 

 more than .one hundred and fifty cartloads of bones were ob- 

 tained and used as manure ! These Lake-dwellings of Ireland, 

 however, L are referable' to a much later ^period than those of 

 Switzerland, and are frequently mentioned in early history. 

 Thus, according to Shirley, " One Thomas Phettiplace, in his 

 * Terpsichore, T. 14. f See Wilde's Catalogue, vol. i. p. 220, 



